Hello City of Eau Claire residents, staff, and Council Members,
I'm writing to share news from the City of Eau Claire. Prior updates can be found here. Take a look at our weekly newsletter to stay on top of what we are working on. Pass it along to friends who can sign up for different City updates here, and feel free to send me feedback.
CITY UPDATES: Here’s some news from around the city.
Haunted Hall? With Halloween this week, the question arose… Is our historical City Hall building haunted? I turned to local experts to find out…
Empty City Hall: Night Custodian Dan Steffen shared this intel: “When I have worked 11PM to 7AM at City Hall, I hated working alone. Being alone when my partner was out made for a long shift.” Stories of incidents that had occurred were in the back of Dan’s mind, but while it made him a bit nervous, there were never any noises or sights, other than the creaking of an old building and the sound of its mechanical systems.
Slamming Doors: Dave Solberg shared this story: “I was working late one night as I had to wait to pick up my son from a school dance. There was a motion-activated Halloween decoration in the office and, even though no one was around, it kept getting activated and moving its head to look and cackle at me. Then, I heard the doors shut. I assumed someone else was working late, so I went to take a look, but no one was there! I opened them again and went back to work. Moments later, they slammed shut again. After the third time they slammed shut, I grabbed my computer as fast as I could and I left City Hall and sat in a McDonalds until it was time to pick up my son.” Dave did say, however, that he’s certain it was just the dark that had him rattled!
Mishaps: Retired, long-time City Planner, Pat Ivory, was known for working late into the night. When asked, he shared these stories: “I worked at City Hall for 37 years, worked countless evenings and many Saturdays and Sundays alone, but don’t have creepy stories or ghost stories to tell. We did have a water main break that flooded our office (southwest corner of the building), a ceiling collapse in the middle of the night in the Housing area (now Assessing), a car collision with the building at the south entrance, black mold that required us to vacate the offices temporarily, and a Council member who experienced a medical emergency… but no ghost stories. The Council member was OK. The paramedics from the Fire Department responded quickly to provide assistance.” The car crash and flood are pictured here (along with a younger version of Dave Solberg, who does not look happy!)
Original source can be found here.
Alerts Sign-up